Suicide Bombers Are Not Victims

The Palestinian leadership tells many confusing stories about how the world should view suicide bombers. In the old version, from the days when Oslo was on track, the Palestinian leadership said that suicide attacks were being carried out against its desire by renegades—fanatics. More recently, however, the rhetoric has changed. The Palestinian leadership still condemns the attacks, but it now sympathies with the bomber. In the new version, the bomber is the victim of the story. It is always emphasized that Israeli occupation has driven the suicide bomber to his act of depravity. In this twisted way, Israel stands responsible for the bomber’s death.

When it counts the suicide bomber among the victims, the Palestinian leadership reveals the profound disrespect it has for its own people. To be a victim, the bomber must have no choice about committing the crime—this is what the Palestinian authorities claim. The Israeli occupation has so abused the Palestinian people, so humiliated them, that the people are desperate and cannot control themselves. But this is a demeaning view of the Palestinian people because humans always have a choice. There have been many oppressed peoples who did not attack innocent civilians. Some groups, with enormous amounts of restraint and self-respect, have been able to effect change without resorting to violence. When it comes to detonating oneself in a shopping mail, a restaurant or disco, there is always a choice. For the Palestinian leadership to insist that the occupation has forced its people to commit these atrocities—that the Palestinian people have no agency—is to deny the very humanity of the Palestinian people.

This denial, unfortunately, permeates the rhetoric of the Palestinian leadership, both of the official Palestinian National Authority, and of the unofficial leaders in Hamas and Fatah. As Faysal Husayni, the leader of al-Fatah, says, the Palestinians’ advantage over the Israelis is that they are more dedicated to their cause: “We are willing to die, but for them every death is a tragedy.” This declaration is often repeated, and it would be a brave statement coming from a suicide bomber—since it shows a greater devotion to the Palestinian cause than even to life itself.

But most of the time it is not suicide bombers spouting this bravado—it is their leaders. The ones praising the bravery of the bombers somehow never decide to kill themselves. In reality, these “martyrs” are really just being used as inexpensive missiles—inexpensive because the only cost is human life. No one is worried about Yasser Arafat using his body to carry a bomb. Nor do we find the limbs of high-ranking members of Hammas strewn about Jerusalem pizza parlors. These leaders are less willing to die for the cause than they are to send others to die instead.

The current Palestinian leadership does not respect the needs or the lives of its people. The problem with the Intifada is that no uprising predicated on the worthlessness of human life can ever bring peace to the Palestinian people. Instead of working for peace, the Palestinian leaders will continue to encourage the violence of the Intifada because it makes them more powerful. And after all, the cost of the Intifada is piddling. It is only human life.